From the time Justin was an infant he has always been easily stimulated and therefore hard to get to sleep, but unless a loud noise startled him he would sleep long and soundly. What's more, he would easily fall asleep in the car - even in broad daylight - yet if you put him in a quiet, darkened room (with a fan on for white noise) he would giggle and wouldn't settle down until 45 minutes after I put him down.
Six months ago he gave up his nap - which was hard for me to adjust more than it was for him - but his sleeping habits seemed to adjust to it. Instead of waking up at 8 he would sleep until 9-10 if allowed to and would go to bed without a whole lot of fuss anywhere from 8-10PM.
Now there seems to be a new wrinkle to his sleeping habits and I'm at a loss to explain it. He still doesn't nap - again unless he falls asleep in the car - but a few days these past couple of weeks he seems to be waking up mega-early (3-4AM) and refuses to go to bed until 9-10PM.
I can't explain what's waking him up. It's not like he's waking in response to a nightmare because he sounds happy when he calls for me and my wife. It also can't be in response to some outside noise because it's usually quiet in and outside of the house during those hours. The only thing that could possibly wake him up is when his baby brother starts screaming next door for his late night feeding - but even that isn't consistent because a few nights when he woke up early the baby actually slept through the night.
As for the bedtime ritual, he seems to be resistant to even go in his room and will scream for a few minutes to an hour - even after an 18 hour day.
Does anyone have any idea why this is happening or have any ideas on how I can calm him down to get him back to sleep for a couple more hours at least?
It may be a phase that he's going through. My little one, who is three also, was always a champion sleeper until about the beginning of this year. Then it started getting harder and harder to get him down at night until I was up with him until 2AM sometimes. We finally got that straightened out by giving him melatonin and making sure that we turned the light in his room out after he fell asleep (if you don't get eight hours of sleep in the dark your body can't make it's own melatonin so your sleep cycles continue to be disrupted). At that point he was going down around ten but he would get up at seven and he dropped his daytime nap ages and ages ago. Nine hours of sleep a day is not alot for a three year old. About a month ago, he started waking up at 5AM Fortunately, I had already scheduled our first appt with a DAN! Dr. He upped the amount of melatonin we are giving Adam and added 50mg of 5-HTP. The melatonin helps him go to sleep (we use Natrol liquid melatonin that we get from www.vitaminshoppe.com), and the 5-HTP is supposed to keep him down. And it is working like a charm. He is going to sleep faster, sleeping better and staying asleep longer than he has in his life. I'm not sure if it's related to being more rested, but he also seems more alert, and his language skills seem to have improved (although we have started M-B12 shots also).For awhile, I was giving each of my kids melatonin at bedtime. You can find
them at health food stores, in a yummy dissolving tablet. We also pour a lot
of Epsom salt in their bath. And - this might sound familiar to you - they all
seem to sleep much better with the light on. @@ I don't know why. But I
usually let them leave it on now. Sorry you're not getting much sleep! =o(
My son also went through occasional periods of being rarin' to go in the middle of the night. It's exhausting and was a safety issue at our house, because I couldn't stay awake well enough to watch him. Luckily these phases didn't last long and he outgrew the tendency completely. At age 9, he still wakes up at night, but doesn't stay awake.
Here's an info sheet from the highly respected National Autistic Society in the UK, called "Helping your child with autism to sleep better."
http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1071&a=3376
Good luck with everything.
My daughter is going through this again. We're building a new house and her little brother is getting lots of therapy attention. There's always a stress trigger for her whether it's big or small. Allergies are a problem too.
We've never been able to just fix it but she seems to adapt after we figure out the stressor and talk to her, for example, she thought houses moved. She didn't realise people moved.
ETA: things that upset her sleep pattern:
different smells in room, watching the news (oops), shadows, small cold, when she does something during the day (like pushing her brother's face in the dirt) and doesn't understand what was so wrong about that. Many ,many things. It could even be a different watt light bulb!
We've had similar night waking issues with Cole. It stinks, doesn't it? I remember very clearly being in your spot...a 3 year old and a 6 month old, who the heck sleeps around here? Mine gave up naps at 3 also.
Cole will sometimes perseverate on movies or computer programs he's beeing doing. If your child has any perseverations on movies, start writing down what movie or show he is watching in the afternoon. That's what I'm starting to do because it is the only consistent thing I can come up with that interferes with his rest. There is absolutely no other common link for him, aside from anxiety over a new school year (last year) or new pets, etc.
There are some movies he watched when he was younger, very stimulating, and he has mostly memorized the scenes in them. I have found that if he watches one of these older, memorized movies nowdays (Monsters, Inc, for example) at 4PM but we went to the pool for a quiet dinner and sunset/moon rise swim, he falls asleep fast, but awakens in the middle of the night.
Also, on the light issue - Cole is a bit light sensitive, so the early morning sun WILL wake him. We do not leave lights on, just the door cracked and a downstairs foyer light on dim. You need to google this, but I read some years ago that children under a certain age need to have their retinas rest overnight. Kids who consistently had a light on in their room were more likely to grow up nearsighted.
Work out a shift with your husband so you guys can each get 3 solids hours, up for a bit, then back down for 2. It ain't much, but we survived years of this! Good luck! And zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz to you!
Thanks for the replies. I will research further into melatonin, but then again as you say this may just be a phase. I hope so!| These sleep issues are common with ASD kids. I also use the melatonin. You body needs this anyways. It is what is in turkey that makes you sleepy at thanksgiving and it can be found in grapes and other foods too. A safe alternitive to drugs. |